A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit backed by Michigan Republicans that attempted to overturn a 2018 ballot measure that changed the process of drawing the state’s political districts.
The Michigan Republican Party and Tony Daunt, executive director of the conservative Michigan Freedom Fund, filed separate lawsuits that were later combined to argue their constitutional rights were violated by rules prohibiting political actors from joining a new, voter-approved redistricting commission. U.S. District Judge Janet Neff ruled in favor of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Monday, July 6, determining the plaintiffs failed to provide plausible evidence for their claims.
Neff’s ruling referenced another recent decision by a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which unanimously upheld a lower court decision deeming the new law constitutional.
Neff wrote that the 6th Circuit Court issued a “fully considered” decision on the legal issues of the case “and mirror this Court’s own assessment of the legal sufficiency of Plaintiffs’ claims.”
The judge’s decision protects Michigan’s independent redistricting commission, which has faced attacks from the Republican-led Legislature. The Michigan Republican Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Daunt said he will be reviewing Neff’s order and discussing next steps in the near future.
“We continue to believe that these restrictions unfairly prohibit certain Michigan citizens from serving their state, targeting them for exercising their constitutional rights or, most egregiously, for simply being related to someone who does,” he said in a statement.
Changes to the Michigan Constitution approved by voters in 2018 gave a new redistricting commission responsibility for drawing Michigan’s legislative district lines after the 2020 election, shifting that power from the state Legislature. A 13-member body comprised of four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents will be assembled later this year.
The previous maps were created in 2011, when Republicans controlled both chambers of the state Legislature and the governor’s office. A panel of U.S. District Court judges determined the process was a political gerrymander of “historic proportions” to benefit Republicans in four election cycles spanning eight years.
“This decision reaffirms exactly what our democracy demands: a fair process for the people of this state,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement. “In 2018, Michiganders made it abundantly clear that the integrity of our democracy should not be left up to those in positions of power looking to satisfy their own agenda.”
Voters Not Politicians, an organization founded to shepherd the 2018 ballot initiative and an intervening party in the case, celebrated the victory in a statement.
“The courts have vindicated the people’s right to use our political power to take back our redistricting process and unrig our elections,” said Executive Director Nancy Wang. “We are thrilled to see an end to these wasteful lawsuits brought by the Michigan Republican Party, Tony Daunt of the Michigan Freedom Fund, and other opponents of fair redistricting to thwart the will of the people.”
Voters Not Politicians received legal assistance from the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit focused on “reducing the influence of money in politics and to support unrestricted access to voting,” according to its website.
“It is time for fair maps in Michigan,” CLC Vice President Paul Smith said in a statement. “Taking partisanship out of drawing electoral maps is critical to advancing the principles of accountability and transparency in government.”
Republicans argued, according to court documents, that restrictions on who can serve on the commission violate their constitutional rights. Daunt and The Michigan Republican Party also argued their constitutional right to association was violated because political parties are blocked from choosing representatives to serve on the commission.
People cannot serve if they have, in the last six years, ran for office, were an elected official, a political party officer, paid political consultant, registered lobbyist, worked for the legislature or were an unclassified state employee. People also cannot serve if they are a parent, stepparent, child, stepchild or spouse of a person who has done any of those things.
Daunt and The Michigan Republican Party also argued their constitutional right to association was violated because political parties are blocked from choosing representatives to serve on the commission.
Benson and her allies countered that the interests of the state in establishing a fair and impartial redistricting process outweigh any burden on the rights of political actors barred from joining the commission. According to court documents, Benson argued the burden on speech and association rights are “minimal” and “temporary.”
Benson argued in court documents that “the manifest purpose of the amendment is to transfer the power of establishing legislative districts from the legislature and the political parties who dominate it to the hands of citizens without a personal stake in the details of how and where those districts are drawn.”
Neff and the 6th Circuit Court sided with Benson, ruling that the eligibility criteria does not impose any “severe” burden on the GOP plaintiffs.
“Specifically, the Sixth Circuit determined that the burden on Plaintiffs is ‘relatively insignificant,’ given ‘their ability to serve on the Commission after their six-year period of ineligibility expires, the lack of any direct prohibition or regulation of pure speech, and the absence of any fundamental right to be a member of the Commission,‘” Neff wrote.
Plaintiffs also argued against requirements barring commissioners from discussing redistricting matters with members of the public outside of open meetings. Neff ruled that the open meeting requirement is constitutional.
Meanwhile, the process of selecting members who will serve on the commission rolls ahead. Two hundred finalists were randomly drawn from a pool of 9,367 voters who submitted applications. Now, Republicans and Democrats from both the House of Representatives and Senate are working to trim the pool even further.
In August, each has the opportunity to strike five applicants, for a total of 20, from the selection pool. An independent firm tasked with drawing the initial 200 candidates will randomly select the final 13 commissioners.
View the full list of 200 candidates online here.
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